Corporate Governance

The Board believes that in terms of the overall direction and control of the Company effective corporate governance will come principally from the values, standards and disciplines it seeks to apply in dealings with shareholders, customers, staff, suppliers, contractors and other stakeholders. Many of the Company’s core values and standards are set out in a range of procedures and practice guidelines communicated throughout the Group. However, external governance codes set the framework for our internal standards and we therefore seek to comply with established best practice in all areas of corporate governance.

Statement Of Compliance With Code Provisions as at 30th June 2007.

The Company is committed to the highest standards of corporate governance. Throughout the year ended 30th June 2007 the Company complied with the provisions of the Combined Code on Corporate Governance issued by the Financial Reporting Council in June 2006 (“the Code”) except in the following areas.

Code provision A.3.2. requires that at least half of the Board, excluding the Chairman, should comprise independent Non-Executive Directors. At the start of the year the Board comprised, excluding the Chairman, 5 Non-Executive Directors considered to be independent and 5 Executive Directors. After M S Clare was appointed on 2 October 2006 and following the retirement of A E Kilburn on 28 November 2006, D A Pretty on 31 December and G K Hester on 8 January 2007, the Company achieved a balanced and independent Board as required by the Code.